ROC the Future received nearly $75,000 from StriveTogether, a national nonprofit working to bring communities together around data to make decisions and improve results for kids. This award is part of the Cradle to Career Community Challenge grant, which will award up to $7 million in new grants over 3 years to strengthen the systems that shape opportunity for children. ROC the Future will use its grant award to support the Early Grade Literacy Outcome Team to implement strategies to ensure all students are reading on grade level and developing advanced literacies in reading, writing, critical thinking skills and oral proficiencies.

StriveTogether’s Cradle to Career Community Challenge, which seeks to create local change to enable economic mobility, is designed to strengthen and align the many systems, such as education, employment, health and housing that shape opportunity for children and families in America.

While third grade reading has been a priority for ROC the Future for several years, our collective work has primarily supported kindergarten readiness. Our School Readiness Team developed and implemented the GROW Rochester project, providing developmental screenings for 3-year-olds, as a key strategy to help children get ready for kindergarten. The new team will explore opportunities to expand culturally responsive curriculum and materials in schools; support professional development around language acquisition and literacy instruction for RCSD reading teachers and administrators; and expand our focus with All Kids Thrive, a local effort to align education and health sectors to support child outcomes.

ROC the Future was one of 10 selected communities, each awarded a maximum total grant award of $550,000 over three years to reach proof point through the Community Challenge’s Accelerator Fund, which will advance equity and systems change in communities that are close to achieving proof point, an important measure of progress along StriveTogether’s framework for cradle-to-career work.